The third documentary by Director Callum Macrae about the final months of the armed conflict in Sri Lanka, No Fire Zone, will be screened on British television by Channel 4 on Sunday at 22:50.
Macrae, who was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his movies on the conflict, announced the broadcast at a panel discussion on Sri Lanka in Parliament last week, saying that there would be new, previously unseen material.
TimeOut magazine’s Phil Harrison reviewed the documentary for this week’s issue and awarded it five stars.
“To their eternal credit, C4 News have worried away at this horrendous, oddly underplayed story since it first started appearing on our radars. They are in a minority. At some point in the future the UN, various national governments (including our own) and almost all other media outlets will look back on their behaviour during the final few months of the Sri Lankan civil war and hang their heads in shame,” he wrote.
“Almost unbelievably, Sri Lanka is hosting a summit of Commonwealth leaders soon; someone should organise a screening of this film which documents, in almost unbearable detail, the systematic deprivation, rape, torture and simple slaughter which caused the deaths of up to 70,000 Tamils in 2008, most of them in laughably named ‘No Fire Zones’ of the title.
“This film is a difficult, not to mention enraging watch and should be approached with caution. Tragically, it’s essential viewing all the same.”